Thursday, October 9

The Brown-Mice are omnivores ...

... I’ve mentioned this before, but reading Jeffrey Steingarten’s Slate article on learning to be omnivorous (again) reminded me how much (a) I love Jeffrey Steingarten (I’ve got all his books) and (b) how much I love being an omnivore.
Now, I’m not a good omnivore, according to Mr Steingarten, because I’m still a relatively fussy eater. I have strong aversions to certain foods that I have absolutely no intention of ever trying to overcome.
Most of these aversions are based on either smell or texture/mouth feel.
Strong smelling cheeses? NO, nope, I can’t overcome the revulsion and put something that smells like a dead sock, or worse, into my mouth. Offal? Generally NO, it’s the texture of kidneys, liver, etc I just can’t overcome. It’s not like meat, or anything else, organ meat just feels wrong on the tongue.
That said, I’ll happily eat pate and if you mince kidney to a paste and put it in the steak & kidney pud (thanks Mum) I’ll scoff it down.
Anyhoo, the point is, human beings evolved into perfect omnivores. We have the teeth to cope with meat & veg, sharp and grinding. We have the gut to cope with both, neither too long nor too short. Perfect.
So we will continue to happily consume the flesh of beasts (hoofed, winged or finned) along with fruits, vegetables and grains of all sorts. Sometimes together, sometimes not.
And on that note, may I recommend this lovely omnivorous meal? We had it last night, totally delish.

3 comments:

Pink Granite said...

Hi -
That recipe looks very tasty!
I think I've got that very same box of spelt in my pantry right now. I've tried that particular artichoke antipasto from Trader Joe's, but never in this way.

My only hesitation is adding the tuna. While I like tuna salad (like my chicken salad, only with tuna) and I love grilled tuna steaks, I never add tuna to a hot dish.

I probably was traumatized at an early age by a "Tuna Noodle Casserole". Hopefully that item has never made its way to Australia!

Thanks for the link and the inspiration!
;o)
- Lee

Ms Brown Mouse said...

Lee, I think "Tuna Noodle Casserole" is the very same thing as "Tuna Bake" round these ways. Did yours have chopped boiled eggies?

Ms Brown Mouse said...

oh, and as for tuna, try bunging in some chopped smoked chicken - I'll bet that would be yummy.